What is this stuff and how do i get rid of it?

T

tomatoshooter

Well-known member
So, I have this awful stuff growing in my backyard, it's woody, spiky, and grows fast. Close to one inch diameter stem and close to four feet tall after one season. I'm chopping it down, and the fluffy stuff is going all over which means I'll probably have more next year. I'm not sure if I trust myself with a flamethrower but I am tempted.
 

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tomatoshooter said:
So, I have this awful stuff growing in my backyard, it's woody, spiky, and grows fast. Close to one inch diameter stem and close to four feet tall after one season. I'm chopping it down, and the fluffy stuff is going all over which means I'll probably have more next year. I'm not sure if I trust myself with a flamethrower but I am tempted.
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Put some in a sealed plastic bag and take it to your local real garden center or your county ag extension office. Local people tend to know about local issues and fixes. You might even try your neighbors if there is a gardener among them.

What did the flowers look like? (Exact plant identification often requires a flower.) My guess: some kind of thistle.
 
Is this a Billiards forum or are we so bored that we now post garden questions?

Sent from my SM-S928U using Tapatalk
 
What? We're not allowed any topic other than pool? Okay..if so, I wonder if that fluffy stuff could be used in making pool chalk? There, on topic!

I'm with Bob regarding suggestions...
 
tomatoshooter said:
So, I have this awful stuff growing in my backyard, it's woody, spiky, and grows fast. Close to one inch diameter stem and close to four feet tall after one season. I'm chopping it down, and the fluffy stuff is going all over which means I'll probably have more next year. I'm not sure if I trust myself with a flamethrower but I am tempted.
Click to expand...
Just spray some RoundUp and walk away.

Done
 
tomatoshooter said:
So, I have this awful stuff growing in my backyard, it's woody, spiky, and grows fast. Close to one inch diameter stem and close to four feet tall after one season. I'm chopping it down, and the fluffy stuff is going all over which means I'll probably have more next year. I'm not sure if I trust myself with a flamethrower but I am tempted.
Click to expand...

You are describing what I call thistle but the picture looks like thorns. When I was young and in my natural prime I could do wonders clearing these things with a briar blade. Cut them near the ground and roll them into big balls to burn. When they had the fluff on them that went everywhere I carefully eased a garbage bag over them before cutting. In a couple years of hand work I had it mostly irradicated from seven acres and about three more downwind. Asswipe upwind wasn't treating so I got some reinfestation but got it down a bunch every year.

Years ago the book cost me thirty or forty dollars and ten more to pass the test then as a land owner I could get pretty much anything the pro's got and I could get larger containers vastly cheaper. One thing to know, it has to be immediate, they say less than thirty minutes, I go with less than ten, painting pure roundup on the fresh cut stem will kill almost anything. Serious precautions to use roundup or any poison. A little liquid dish soap or laundry detergent serves as a surficant, no sense paying much extra for "pro with surficant".

I think the feds will identify the plant for free, even come out to your place to do it. Might as well get a few of your tax dollars back.

Hu
 
If garden center doesn’t know then any lawn service like TruGreen or similar, that sprays your lawn and kills weeds, would know
 
most weeds will be gone if you cut them down before they flower and spread seeds. if you can do it for two years you usually get all or most of the, but the seeds already in the ground may sprout for years depending on the weed and if they get disturbed.
they already spread for this year all you are going to do is get rid of the dead and dying . but still should cut to ground level so other plants can help crowd them out.
 
if the flowers are kind of purple then spread like cotton as mostly white then it is probably canada thistle. or called california depending on where you live.

i get lots of it and the birds and bees love it so overall with them in danger it might be okay .
but i pick it or cut it at the base and after two years that patch is gone or almost gone.

some weeds like this grow from roots and last a while, but nothing really spreads if it gets cut before it can mature.

its an on going process nothing eliminates then for good at one time.
poisons kill you and the wildlife as well but slowly, so it hard to notice.
 
if it tells you not to drink it then it will get into your body from breathing or contact absorption
if you cant drink it then it will harm your health more than a patch of weeds.
 
Round up should work but I'd be more inclined to try some range star a 2 - 4 - D Amine if you have lawn close by .

I'd contact you're county weed dept I'm sure they would be more than happy to set you up for a marginal fee or, possibly free .

It appears to be a member of the " Goat Head family" of weeds which is what is called a prostate plant or in other words it grows very close to the ground and spreads like wildfire !
 
You need to use leather gloves for those ones tomato….and Sorry. For this year, you’re kind of screwed. You have to pull them out then more are gonna come because the seeds are already in the ground. You just don’t see all of them yet. Next year, you can put the pre-germination down in March and that will prevent most of them from coming back. Otherwise just hit him them with a weedeater. They don’t grow good in the middle of your lawn either. Usually two or three cuts and they die off.
 
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